


After the End

by Herald_of_Naamah



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 00:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18376790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herald_of_Naamah/pseuds/Herald_of_Naamah
Summary: Sequel to Rose in the Stone, as Kasha realizes it may be okay to move on.





	1. Chapter 1

Kasha Aeducan was a ruler in her own right, before her brothers grabbed for power. Dwarves princess, capable warrior- and now Grey Warden and living paragon. Her place in the stone was decided and her mind well attuned.

Anora Theiren was queen of Fereldan. She was not bold, but her words cut well. In spite of the woman being regent of the land she had save, Kasha hated Anora.

It was an overall passionless hatred. The dwarf contemplated it as she sat on a hill, oiling and sharpening her blade and shield. Probably it was due to the fact that such hate was more resentment and displeasure in general as opposed to a desire to truly see smiting. After all, Anora played the game moderately well.

She hated Anora because of Alistair.

Kasha shuddered as the name brought her back. After almost two years it was like tending a fresh wound, tears stinging at her fiercely. He had been her companion, her friend, and lover at once. Then she found him the bastard son of a king, and to help this place she had given him a false birthright and forced it for the advantage of the so-called greater good. Kasha has given him to Anora against her own heart, and they had all paid the price.

Kasha had been ready to pay with her life. Alistair was faster and determined, however, and his broken heart had refitted itself in surprising ways she had not intended. He had not loved Anora, and while he loved Kasha never would, so he chose to be a true king and lay down his own life. It left both Fereldan and Kasha bereft, and the dwarf was stuck with hate and grief.

Anora needed her to stay in some capacity. For most the idea of taking up Duncan’s place would be an honor, Kasha among them, but she was not fit mentally to do so. So instead she took on the mantle of recruiter and champion to the Wardens, and was allowed freedom.

Travel was Zevran’s idea. He taught her how to wander, to live as a shadow of sorts, and while she presented herself often as the Warden, it allotted the ability to keep moving and not stop to truly think about what had hurt. Paired with his company, it kept her sanity from slipping as it had threatened in Amaranthine.

So Kasha traveled, cleared bandits, and recruited for the Wardens. And, sometimes, stewed in anger at Anora.


	2. Chapter 2

It was not surprising that Zevran was the one to keep Kasha whole after Alistair’s death. He’d cared for the dwarf on his own way since the first and in spite of Alistair’s misgivings had grown close to the Warden. With her lost and lonely, he had held her close in his heart, pushing the despair away with an adventure.

Multiple adventures in fact.

The goal was to keep the dwarf busy. He enjoyed her company and did not want to see her suffer, and so he walked with her and assisted as he could.

He asked only once about joining the Grey Wardens. She was a recruiter after all, and it would make some sense. Her violent response to the negative told him all he needed about that idea.

So they journeyed, and chatted. And- eventually- it didn’t hurt to talk.

Or to love.


	3. Chapter 3

The rumor began quietly. They started to talk about the Warden with interest, and notice that she seemed to be alone consistently. They said she wandered Fereldan aimlessly to try to repair the lingering effects of the Blight on her own as penitence for a crime uncommitted.

Alistair might have found it funny.

Zevran loves it. He was her shadow, the ghost in the background, and he dearly loved surprising those who did not expect him. Even Gorim, who had been Kasha’s lover and confidante in times past, had been shocked by the Crow suddenly appearing in his horsecart.

It was as Zevran spoke of taking another job, this one taking him away from her, it finally happened. They were chatting, him deciding to head to Kirkwall...

And Kasha leaned to kiss him.

It was a simple motion wracked with depth, and complexity of its own. The lips met gentle before they both sought more. Kasha set the pace, choosing how it went, until she burned.

“We need to talk when you return,” she decided, pulling away.

“As you wish, Cara. I have waited, and will wait, as needed.”


	4. Chapter 4

Kasha had once been adept at hiding, when she was young. It wasn’t uncommon in the family, learning to sneak and be unassuming. She had been very good at it. When the blade was set in her hand she had gotten even better, learning to hide even from her own emotions.

Alistair has broken her of the habit. His frank nature had not only been a refreshing counter to her own demeanor, it was contagious in its delight. She had opened up and it felt good.

When he’d died, the open wound of her heart refused to fully close and let her hide from herself.

With Zevran, Kasha did not have to hide. Even so, he retaught and taught new ways to bring back the stoicism, as needed. He let her be, and helped her become who she needed...

So when the Warden’s assassin returned from the Free Marches, he was met by Kasha’s arms. “I thought,” she explained, “and I need you.”

In a knightly gesture, Zevran knelt before her and kissed her hand. “Then I am yours.”


	5. Chapter 5

Considering how whirlwind the romance had been it was strange Kasha Aeducan took so long to recover her spirit after losing Alistair. Yet to her it was just a fact, buoyed by guilt from the days before, and Zevran understood enough not to press.

When the dam broke, it was with a vengeance.

After accepting it was okay to move on, to live again, Kasha quickly rebounded to normal. She moved back to cities, though used Zevran’s prompting to change her name and present as a different person entirely. She traveled the world as Alyss Duncan, a warrior out to make a mark as a trade mercenary.

In her hands twirled a pike.

Zevran took jobs near her route, and alongside her. And every night regardless of anything going on they shared their bed and curled, chatting. Many nights passion leaked through; it was not important. It was perfect.

It was full of the will to live, and love.


	6. Chapter 6

Kasha had come to truly adore her time with Zevran. They had traversed Fereldan many times together, in different routes and guises, and it never got old. It was a constant neither wanted to end.

Fereldan has come to know and love its Warden though, and that came with a cost. Notoriety.

Sitting with the Crow in their shared tent, Kasha mulled over the idea, her hands running up and down his back in a massage as he purred beneath her ministrations and listened to her muse.

“We could just leave,” he suddenly suggested. “I have seen where you come from; I could show you my previous home, enjoy the warmth.”

Kasha paused, hand kneading into him with just slightly too much force and eliciting a grunt. “Would that even work?”

“Why not? It is not as bough we really need permission.”

And so the next adventure began.


	7. Chapter 7

Kasha would have found it funny if it didn’t scare her so deeply. The moment she found desire, a need even, to survive she was reminded that she was dying.

It started small. A glimpse of a blurry image in her dreams, but she could let it pass as not uncommon. Then the words, which she had never heard before this, rang in her ears. And the finally the Call changed.

It was loud, harsh. Demanding.

Kasha woke from one such nightmare in a sweat, Zevran straddling her in concert as he obviously held her wrists to keep her still.

“That looks fun,” she managed to croak out. “I want to forget”

Zevran knee her well enough. He pulled himself down on top of her more, tumbling her into the sides of the tent. When she came away at the end, coming undone, Kasha saw the flash again and gasped as she pulled away.

And forced tears to stall.

An hour later, as they spoke over a breakfast of pan bread and honey, Kasha stared into the cook fire. “I think it’s time to head back to Fereldan,” she admitted. “I have someone to see.”

“A friend?”

“No.” She shook her head, somehow not shuddering further. “An architect.”


	8. Chapter 8

The Architect was likely Kasha’s least favorite being in all Thedas. Even so, his assistance was required to investigate the curse of every warden’s blood. Kasha let him rest and experiment, so long as they arrived at a solution to blunt the Calling.

It was loud in her ears at all times now. She heard it as a din that would not end. Still she refused it, not wanting it to control her for as long as she could help it.

The Architect asked for her Warden’s Oath one day, the pendant hanging line on her neck. In surprise she handed it over before heading back to her room and Zevran, ferocity taking the lead as she tried to dim the sounds...

The dwarf was still in her underthings in the early morning when the door opened, and the horrible thing bounded in. He looked at her as she grumbled, unentangling herself from her partner as the Architect did a fair estimation of an eye roll.

“Do you feel it?” he asked, some excitement in his voice.

Kasha struggles to understand until she realized. Today there was no pressure, no voice telling her of doom.

“I... don’t.”

Tests confirmed she could still sense Dark spawn, and they her, but it was no longer the constant push. She smiled wide, kissing Zevran and hugging the odd figure before her.

She lived in freedom, pleased, for an allotment of five more years. No more, but no less either...


	9. Chapter 9

She in the end, a Calling cannot be ignited forever. Kasha had removed the immediacy, the screaming in her head, but she was still very much mortal. She was only so strong, so capable; it was bound to catch up.

She almost laughed in the final moments. She was deep underground, back where she had started, surrounded by the atone and ancient thaigs.

And darkspawn.

Zevran has been with her, but she realized too late the danger. They had been following up on a story from the Inquisitor, and delved too deep. She was blighted and shone like a beacon, unable to avoid the enemy. So she had run off from Zevran, telling him to make his way up without her.

They both knew what it meant. He kissed her deeply, and did as she asked. Only them did she toss her shield and sword away, grabbing the pike slung across her back and twiddling it expertly in a dizzying circle.

It took an hour for them to actually tire her, and miraculously another thirty minutes before it forced her to her knees. She tried and failed to catch her breath, but could not rise. Her last thoughts were of Zevran...

And the last image was of Alistair.


	10. Chapter 10

When Kasha blinked her eyes open she was amazed. She had expected the quiet silence of the stone, but instead heard the very obvious sounds of battle. Her mind instantly cleared, and she looked up to an unwelcome sight.

It was the archdemon that filled her sight. The horrid visage clouded her vision in red an instant, then she shook her head to push it away. The monster was distracted, locked in battle with its own angry foe.

That enemy was Alistair. He looked dragged and exhausted, the constant battle hitting him even here. This was the true sacrifice, Kasha realized; it was not the abolition of the spirit, but allowing it into a constant fight for eternity. She caught her breath, panicking until she realized she would not be here if not to aide. If they ended up locked together that would be enough bit maybe... just maybe...

Alistair’s shield was high, the sword low from tension in his arm. Kasha could call out, take the attention, but thought better. Looking to her side she saw her bag, the short bow on top, and picked it up. She moved to open the pack and grab an arrow of ice when instead another item caught her attention.

‘Do you know what this is?’ Alistair had asked.

‘Your new weapon of choice.’

Kasha felt silly as she put the flower into the notch, somehow fitting perfectly. She took aim and watched as it whizzed past Alistair and into the creature’s mouth, the demon dissipating with a scream in a cloud of white fluff that would make a dandelion envious, ending what would have been a near twenty-year fight. Alistair gazed, perplexed, then saw the perfect rose on the center of his vision and whipped around.

“You’re late,” he whispered, moving towards Kasha and dropping his weapons, a hand moving to caress her cheek.

“I wasn’t ready,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”

Alistair kisses her then, and the smells and feel of him came back as though he’d never left her. When he drew back and she saw his lopsided grin again she could only laugh.

“What? You just did an impossible thing,” he noted.

Kasha shrugged. “Now what?”

Alistair kisses her again. “Now,” he sighed happily, “It seems against all odds we get to be together.”

Kasha nodded. He was a child of the Fade, her the Stone, yet here they were. He held her hand, squeezing, and the area turned to a meadow she remembered well, with two tents and a small cookfire. “Together,” she repeated. “It sounds nice, Alistair. I love you.”


	11. Chapter 11

Zevran could have given up. Yet Kasha had spoken with him once, and promised she would not break down again if something happened to him. He’d seen her in depression, and would wish it on nobody. He could only honor her by choosing the same.

It was another ten years as he built a life without her, a lone bird in the fields again but preying only choosily- and only when needed. A true crow, as it were.

Time caught up. He was not as long lived as some elves, but a great deal older than he’d ever expected. His own room was quiet, but outside both men and women made merry laughter- as he hoped it would always be.

Pleasant enough.

Then he saw the field. It was in full bloom, flowers of red and yellow accenting the deep green. In the middle was the campsite, and at the fire sat Kasha and Alistair in deep discussion. Zevran pursed his lips, giving a whistle like a bird call and delighting as they both turned.

Then Kasha was running, jumping in his arms as he was pulled to the ground to Alistair’s amusement.

“What is this?”

“It seems to be our personal place,” Kasha explained. “I worried you wouldn’t find your way here.”

“Of course I did cara,” he said with a kiss. “I wouldn’t miss it.”


End file.
